Unidentified Southbridge man arraigned on charge of stealing another’s identity for 36 years

Brad Petrishen Telegram & Gazette Staff @BPetrishenTG

Wednesday

Sep 11, 2019 at 8:52 PMSep 11, 2019 at 9:49 PM

WORCESTER – A Southbridge man in his 70s whose true identity authorities have said they do not know was arraigned in federal court Wednesday on allegations he used a stolen identity for 36 years – 20 of which were spent in federal prison.

“John Doe,” a bespectacled man with close-shaved hair and carrying a cane, was led into U.S. District Court Wednesday and arraigned on charges of making false statements in an application for a U.S. passport, aggravated identity theft and making false statements in a health care matter.

The man, through a Spanish interpreter, pleaded not guilty on all three counts. A prosecutor said his immigration status is unknown.

Authorities allege the man’s assumed identity was discovered during a passport application process in 2018.

An affidavit filed in federal court shows authorities took many steps to try to determine the man’s identity, including traveling to Florida to interview siblings of the now-deceased man whose name he had allegedly been using.

“I do not know this person,” one of the siblings wrote on a photograph of the man being charged, authorities said.

Levi Briscoe, a special agent with the U.S. Department of State’s Diplomatic Security Service, said the man tried to say he knew the family members of the man whose identity he stole, but made mistakes in his telling of the family structure.

Authorities say the man arraigned Wednesday spent 20 years in federal prison under the name of his assumed identity, and had used it to apply for MassHealth benefits in 2015 and 2018.

Court records also indicate the man being charged was issued a Massachusetts license in the victim’s name that, as of February 2018, was suspended.

Before his arrest, the man was living at 18 Thomas St., Apt. 2L in Southbridge, court records show. The man whose identity he allegedly assumed – identified only by initials – died in 2010 in Florida.

The passport fraud charge carries a sentence of up to 10 years in prison, 3 years of supervised release and a fine of $250,000. Aggravated identity theft carries a mandatory 2-year prison sentence and a fine of $250,000. The charge of false statement in a health care matter carries a sentence of up to 5 years in prison, 3 years of supervised release, and a fine of $250,000.

The man was ordered held without bail. He is due back in court Oct. 28.

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